Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I begin, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Senator Parry on his elevation to Deputy Government Whip. I have the chance to do this while Senator Parry is in the chamber and probably in his first hour of duty in the job. I hope it does not become an onerous task and that it is an enjoyable task for him.

My job today is to talk on the Petroleum Retail Legislation Repeal Bill 2006. It forms part of the government’s downstream petroleum reform package. This package is aimed at addressing the regulatory failure resulting from the existing outdated legislation. This bill will repeal the Petroleum Retail Marketing Sites Act 1980, which restricts the number of retail sites that prescribed oil companies such as BP and Caltex can directly own and operate. It also of course repeals the Petroleum Retail Marketing Franchise Act 1980, which sets out the terms and conditions for franchise agreements.

These repeals are much needed since the old acts have failed to take account of or keep pace with changes that have come about in the oil market. The major example of this is that the large supermarket chains such as Woolworths and Coles now have their own outlets. The reforms introduced under this bill will be accompanied by the introduction of a new industry code, which will supposedly introduce greater certainty and protection for all parties, introduce a nationally consistent approach to terminal gate pricing, and improve transparency in wholesale pricing. In short, the government claim that these changes, as a package, will facilitate a more effective regulatory environment in the industry and improve the operating environment for the small operators also in the industry.

I am pretty sure that there is nobody in this chamber, let alone in a family household, who is not concerned about the state of the petrol retail industry and the way that extremely high petrol prices—together with higher mortgage repayments brought about by rising interest rates under the Howard government—are hitting the hip pockets of nearly all Australians and families. This is especially so in my electorate of the Northern Territory. Some southerners speak in hushed voices when petrol prices reach $1.20 or $1.25 a litre. Let me tell you that most of my constituents would welcome the price dropping to $1.20 or $1.25.

I noticed in the paper today a suggestion that petrol prices are coming down, to between $1.25 and $1.28, in most of the eastern seaboard states. However, in the Northern Territory they are still paying $1.39—and that is in Darwin, where we are paying 11c to 14c more a litre than anywhere else in this country. Even at Tennant Creek—which is on the main highway, the Stuart Highway—the petrol price has been over $1.60 for many months now. At more remote places such as Nhulunbuy or Numbaa, it is well above this price—$1.80 a litre is quite common in those communities.

In the Territory we not only pay more for our fuel but also pay more in government tax—in GST. As was stated very clearly by my Territory colleague in the other place, Mr Snowdon—unlike Mr Tollner, who never gets to stand up and talk on these sorts of bills—the GST is nothing but a tax on a tax in relation to petrol. The GST simply gets higher as the price of the taxed product goes up.

The Prime Minister tried to make it sound so great that the excise tax on petrol is frozen, but why should he worry when the GST rises ever upwards with the increasing price at the pump? This government is reaping a huge tax windfall while the people in remote Australia are being ripped off more and more at the bowser by the GST. The increasing price of fuel means that the GST has risen for all motorists but far more so for those living in remote areas, where the petrol price and the price of fuel is way above your average eastern seaboard suburban prices.

I want to make sure that others in this place get the message and realise that remote communities are paying the highest prices in this country—and, therefore, more tax than motorists anywhere else—yet they are getting no more benefit than anyone else. Unfortunately, we cannot tell whether this bill that is now being debated will provide relief to people from the present high prices and GST payments; however, we can hope and trust that the introduction of the Oilcode will even out the playing field with the introduction of consistent national regulatory requirements and a consistent approach to terminal gate pricing. It may have a beneficial effect on the east coast, or other major centres where there are multiple outlets, in providing some competition, but many of the Territorians that I represent have no such choice—there is only one outlet in most communities. Whether this outlet be owned by the store or the council, it is only one small outlet with very limited buying power. They cannot buy in bulk. They have to pay high freight costs before the fuel gets to the community pump. They then pay GST on top of that as it goes into their tanks. It is in these remote communities that we find the highest fuel prices—as I said, up to $1.80 a litre, and more, is common and has been for some time.

The poorest Australians in our country are paying higher fuel prices and higher GST on their fuel than any other Australians. The government then questions whether it is worth keeping smaller communities funded—whether they are viable. These communities are paying their fair share of tax to this government, so why not keep funding them?

Let us also look at another solution that was offered with much ado by the Prime Minister to the unsuspecting public. The government has offered a $2,000 rebate to anyone who converts their car to LPG. How effective a solution is that? LPG derives from oil, so if oil supplies decline LPG will also reduce in supply and rise in cost. The consumption of LPG in a car is relatively higher than petrol. The car’s range is reduced, so you need regular and fairly frequent refuelling points. Quite simply, we do not have those in the Northern Territory. There is no LPG available in Nhulunbuy, a large mining town of 4,000 people, nor anywhere on the 700-kilometre track out of Nhulunbuy. There is no LPG outlet in Borroloola, another isolated mining town. You could not drive an LPG fuelled car into, out of or even around any of these towns, and they are not alone. Along the Stuart Highway LPG outlets are few and far between. Put simply, for most of the Territory the LPG solution is simply not an alternative fuel.

On government estimates, after four years maybe only two per cent of the adult population will take advantage of this rebate; so it will have a very low level of penetration. As written in the Sunday Canberra Times on 20 August, it is a bad idea which has no place in a well-designed energy policy. Last week’s decision to increase the subsidy for LPG is bad news for 98 per cent of the taxpayers, but let me tell you this: it is pretty bad news for almost 100 per cent of the constituents that I represent in the Northern Territory. So, once again, the Prime Minister and his government offer little hope or help to the many regional and remote Australians who remain stuck with paying the highest fuel prices, the highest GST on fuel, the highest food prices in this country as trucking companies are forced to pass on high fuel costs and the higher interest rates coming about under this government.

The Treasurer beams that oh so warm smile of his when reminding Australians of all the recent tax cuts. The problem is that, although the tax cuts started on 1 July, they were all gone—well gone—by 31 July as a result of people’s increasing bills. And, of course, some of the income tax cuts have gone back to the Treasury—courtesy of the higher GST paid every time we fill up the car in the Northern Territory. No wonder the Treasurer keeps smiling. But has he got any real reason for doing so? I think not. The Howard government have run out of steam. They have run out of ideas other than the old-hat ideological wishes of an ageing Prime Minister who wants to crush unions; disadvantage workers; reduce their wages, conditions and job security; and privatise everything as a way of increasing employment and productivity. For 10 long years they have been able to live on the coat-tails of the previous Labor government, which set the economic ball rolling towards success and prosperity and a resources boom, which has nothing to do with their economic management.

But this is a government that has now run out of puff in keeping up with relevant changes to encourage investment and to further drive productivity and prosperity. It has failed to keep up with education investment, leading to a drastic skills shortage. It has failed to invest in infrastructure, leaving our ports and roads in poor shape. It is prepared to sell off Telstra despite obvious disadvantages to rural and remote Australia. Reduced services in the bush will do nothing to help regional businesses. It has bought votes through tax cuts, which have increased spending and led to inflationary pressures and rising interest rates. It has failed to act on looming fuel problems.

While Australia has very abundant supplies of natural gas, the government have done nothing to encourage examination of the use of this as an alternative to oil. They have stuck their heads in the sand, or perhaps the coal heaps, and have done nothing to really encourage research and development in alternatives for fuel. So now the government have put up this bill we are debating. While necessary, it is really too little too late. We have a nation still reliant on oil for our transport sector—oil from the less stable parts of the globe, oil now stuck at higher prices.

The government have done nothing, despite our own resources, to encourage the establishment of a home grown, home based fuel industry. We are stuck with a heavy reliance on imported oil, the demand for which is rising rapidly, as countries such as China and India develop further. Anyone with Basic Economics 101 knows that a rising demand with a more or less fixed or reducing supply can have only one result—the price of the product will rise. That is what is happening to oil and it will continue to happen.

No matter how often the Prime Minister tries to be like King Canute and stop the rise, saying a price of $1.15 per litre or whatever is possible again, the truth is that this is simply pie in the sky; it will not happen. The Prime Minister obviously never got as far as economics 101. He tries to reject that the war in Iraq has anything to do with the price of petrol. He says the trouble is the high world price of crude oil, and indeed so it is. But why is the world price for crude oil so high? It is due in part at least to the instability of one of the major producing areas in the world, with the war in Iraq an absolutely undoubted contributing factor. So at least try and be honest for once, Prime Minister.

The price of oil goes up, the price of fuel goes up, GST paid on fuel goes up, the cost of freight goes up, prices in the shops go up and GST paid on food goes up. The Treasurer keeps smiling reassuringly, inflation starts and the Reserve Bank puts the brakes on by raising interest rates, so mortgage payments go up, leaving the average Australian struggling to keep up or spending on credit cards to dangerously high levels which cannot continue. The good times are over. This is not a sustainable situation.

So we have this bill and an offer to rebate some of the expenses of converting to LPG as this government’s reaction to the situation. In addition, there seems to be some rather shaky government support for some forms of biofuels, such as ethanol. I heard somewhere the other day, on one of those early morning radio shows, of an Aussie investor, I think from the Gold Coast, who is putting millions into several biofuels plants. The shame of it is that they are all in the USA, where he says they are really going for these alternatives, unlike our government here, where it is just not worth investing.

What an indictment of this government. It has flipped and flopped over what to do about fuel alternatives like ethanol and LPG and has kept changing the playing field and goal posts. In the last parliament alone it changed the proposed excise regime on no fewer than three occasions. Labor believe that we must do something real and positive to ensure the future of alternatives like ethanol and other biofuels. Without ensuring the security of these alternatives we will remain captive, or hostage, to oil supplies from the Middle East, Russia and west Africa and to high oil prices. These are all areas with problems of stability and continuity of supply.

We should long ago have been looking at converting our own natural gas to fuel, working on cleaner coal for power stations and converting coal to diesel as more desirable options as fuel sources. Instead, we export as much of our gas as we can sell to look after Japan and China. How can this be in the long-term national interest? Sadly, working on alternative, cleaner and sustainable fuel has not been on the Prime Minister’s radar. He has been far too preoccupied with his extreme workplace relations legislation, ruthless changes to Welfare to Work rules or beating our Indigenous people about the head with major changes to land rights in the Northern Territory without consultation.

The time has come for urgent action, for Australia to actually have a proper energy policy, to work seriously towards developing alternatives with our own resources and to review the decision made to introduce excise on ethanol, biodiesel and LPG in 2011. The time has come to genuinely assist in the development of these alternative fuels and not muddle along like this government has done for far too long. (Quorum formed)